How to Make the Perfect Strawberry Cake

How to Make the Perfect Strawberry Cake | Claire Saffitz

There’s nothing like a classic homemade strawberry cake, especially when it starts with a light, buttery sponge and layers of silky vanilla pastry cream and fresh strawberries. In this episode, Claire shows you how to make an elegant strawberry cake completely from scratch using simple ingredients and professional baking techniques you can recreate at home.

You’ll learn how to bake a tender sponge cake, make a rich vanilla pastry cream with real vanilla bean, stabilize the filling for clean slices, and assemble a beautiful cake that’s perfect for spring, summer, birthdays, Easter, baby showers, or any special occasion.

Whether you’re an experienced baker or tackling your first layer cake, Claire walks through every step so you can achieve bakery-quality results in your own kitchen.

If you enjoy detailed baking tutorials, pastry techniques, and from-scratch desserts, subscribe for more recipes from Claire.

SPONGE

300g (6 large) eggs

188g sugar

Pinch of salt

188g flour, sifted

40g butter, melted and cooled

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Diplomat Cream

2 cups whole milk (16 oz)

Seeds scraped from ½ vanilla bean

½ teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt

½ cup sugar (100g)

¼ cup cornstarch

5 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin, softened in 2 tablespoon cold water

6 tablespoons unsalted butter (3 oz), cut into ½-inch pieces, chilled

1 cup heavy cream

00:00 Intro

01:06 Strawberry Cake

01:48 Ingredients & Special Equipment

04:32 How To Make Sponge Cake

07:57 Bake the Sponge Cake

11:14 How To Make Diplomat Cream

19:04 Remove & Let Cool Upside Down

20:05 Prepare the Strawberries

23:58 Finish the Filling

26:35 Assemble

35:25 Unmold & Serve

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